


bloom versus the multiverse

by inwhichiexist



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), If You Squint - Freeform, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, ink/dream - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:20:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26592799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inwhichiexist/pseuds/inwhichiexist
Summary: he's been abandoned. no one's tried looking for so many years, he's lost count.
Kudos: 2





	1. prologue: in which he is forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> hey! this is my au (which currently nas no name), so please don't steal it! now, i hope you like reading it, and please share with others!
> 
> i mostly have this au thought up, but it'll take a while to write, so please be patient, and tell me what you think so far!

all alone, sitting in the dark, is a skeleton. he is hunched over, muttering to himself. his red robe touches the ground around him, flowing like a gown. his head in wrapped in braided vines, and sometimes he will hold his face as if in pain. a broken wooden staff with a dead flower sits not too far from him. he's sitting in an empty timeline; which is a timeline that has glitched from its universe and sits alone. he sits in water fall, the water echoing all around him, flowers repeating his pleas for someone, anyone, to find him. no one has answered.

this skeleton's name is bloom, and he used to guard the multiverse. you see, just a few hours ago, he met a new foe.

he came out of the ground of an underswap timeline, where bloom had been checking on its inhabitants. he was a black skeleton with a blue and purple hue, tentacles surrounding him. he seemed to be melting. "oh my stars, are you okay?" bloom asked, worried. he raised some vines out of the ground, then held them in his hands. "is there a specific place that hurts? i can wrap it with my vines, until we can find-" the darker skeleton chuckled quietly, cutting bloom off. soon, the chuckling turned into all-out laughing, the sound echoing through snowdin. "i've never felt better!" bloom summoned his staff, made of cherry wood and cedar, spiraling until the two branches met at the top, holding a rose that glowed lightly. "i think you need to leave," bloom said slowly, getting into a fighting stance. "make me." the darker skeleton replied simply, rushing forward and jumping on top of the spot bloom stood.

bloom jumped to the right, rolling until he landed on his feet, and thrust his staff and hand forward, summoning thorn vines that cracked the ground and sped towards the other, who simply moved to the side and smiled widely. "i won't let you hurt this universe!" bloom shouted, repeating his thorn attack in the front, bringing regular lines up behind the skeleton. he seemed to have sensed it coming, because again he moved to the side, and the two attacks hit each other. "try and stop me," the skeleton answered. "i'll make everyone suffer!" he rushed forward, and bloom had barely gotten out of the way before his tentacles hit the ground he previously stood, cracking the dirt below the snow. it went on like this for a while, attacking and dodging like a dance. bloom was growing tired and sore; the other monster seemed to grow stronger the more tired he got, as if feeding off of it. _he must be feeding off of my negativity,_ bloom thought. finally, he laid a hit on the other skeleton. it wasn't much, but bloom managed to hit him in the side, which made him stagger for a second. bloom, out of breath, managed to smile. "what's your name?" bloom asked, preparing another attack. the darker monster smirked, but ignored bloom. "okay," bloom responded. "i'm bloom." he breathed out, bringing forth more thorns. this time they moved slower, and bloom felt as though it would not do much damage. the dark skeleton smiled wider than he ever had, and rushed forward, jumping over the thorns, and brought his tentacles forth, lunging forward. 

bloom was too slow.

before he knew what was happening, bloom was thrown backwards, slamming through four trees before landing in an empty area of the snowdin forest. his staff lay where he just was, broken in pieces. he couldn't see out of his right eye, couldn't feel anything but a dull tingling around his head and a ringing in his ears. his whole body felt heavy, and he felt like puking. the ringing died down after a moment, and bloom heard footsteps coming up to him slowly. the dark, melting skeleton stood above him now, chuckling wildly. his tentacles raised high into the air, and he leaned forward. 

"call me nightmare."

the tentacles lunged forward.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bloom woke up screaming in pain. the right side of his face was white-hot, and he felt blood running down his face and onto the snow below him. his body was freezing. his breath came out shaky. "h...hello?" he called quietly. no answer. his body was tingling from the cold of the snow - how long had bloom been laying here? his eye hurt as he thought, and he groaned, attempting to bring his hand up to his face, but barely managed to move it. "cm'on, bloom," he muttered, "that 'nightmare' guy could be hurting people." he tried again. and again. and again. finally, he was able to bring his hand up to his head. his face was wet, and sticky. and felt rough - like his skull was cracked. he paled. "no." again and again and again and again he tried to get up, and after seven tries, he shakily stood on his feet. the braid of his crown patted his back as he staggered, and he pulled it down, covering his bleeding face and right eye. the buttercup petals blocked his vision slightly, but he ignored it.

he tried summoning his staff, remembered it was broken, and decided to bring forth vines instead. he raised his arms up, palms face-up, and waited for the feel of his power. nothing happened. he tried again. nothing. bringing his bloodied hands down, he stared at them. why weren't his powers working? he tried one last time, and finally, although just barely, felt the pull of nature around him. but that was all he could seem to do. "hello?" he called, walking past the four broken and dead trees, picking up his broken staff. to his right, the door to the ruins stood.

it was covered in dust.

"asgore?" bloom called out at the door, walking slowly towards it. "hello, king asgore? can you hear me?" there was no answer. in fact, there was no noise at all that he could hear. "if you can hear me, king asgore, please don't leave the ruins, something's happened. i'm gonna go get help." as he walked away, bloom ignored the purple and white gown mixed into the monster dust.

"hello, is anyone there?" he called as he walked. there was no answer. "sans, papyrus, muffet? is anyone here?" snowdin felt colder than it usually was, as if the warmth of people had gone. dust was everywhere, and as bloom walked into muffet's restaurant, he recognized the bartender uniform that sat on the floor, between asriel's sweater and two piles of dust. "hey, is anyone there? i can help! you just need to tell me where you are!" the only noise bloom got back was an echo of his voice. "please, someone answer!"

but no one came. 

finally, bloom made it to waterfall, broken staff in both hands. "please, anyone, answer me!" the echo flowers repeated silently, _"... answer me..."_ and all bloom could do was yell, and tell himself it would be okay. it's all he could do. "please, someone, answer me!" the plea echoed. finally, finally, _finally,_ a small whimper responded. "... over here..." it whispered. it was just to his left, by a wall. "hey, you're okay," bloom assured as he walked over. "c...chara?" bloom whispered, dropping his broken staff. the small human child, whimpered again, and bloom rushed over to them, laying them in his lap carefully. they weren't bleeding, but seemed to be clinging on for dear life. "what happened?" he whispered. his eyes hurt and his head pounded as he tried his best not to cry. "...bad man," they whispered back. bloom knew it was nightmare. "how long ago? is he still here?" _i can stop him,_ bloom thought to himself, _i can make sure no one else dies._ "...while ago, hurt people. alphys, dust..." chara cried quietly, mourning their friend. "is anyone else alive...?" bloom asked, voice shaking. nightmare couldn't have... he hoped with everything he had that people were still alive. "dunno..." they answered. "can't you reset?" "took it..." this time they sobbed loudly, and then went quiet. they were gone. "i'm sorry i couldn't save you, chara," bloom whispered as he cried, setting their body down in the flowers next to them. the flowers repeated.

"i have to get help", bloom finally said. "maybe another guardian can stop nightmare. they have to, no other universe can have this fate." bloom raised his hands again, feeling the flowers around him, and focused on leaving. the pull of his power was still barely there, but bloom pushed through it, focusing all that could on the code of the code. at last, he felt something, felt himself leaving the universe, code wrapping around him. 

then all he felt was pain.

he ignored the pain growing worse, ignored the pieces of his skull falling off and onto the ground, ignored the blood, ignored the dust everywhere. he looked around. the universe was glitching. his powers felt weird, and so did the code of the universe. bloom felt nothing but pain all over his body as the world around him went white, and returned. he screamed, loud, as his body was on fire, nerves going crazy as his body cracked and fell. after what felt like hours, the pain stopped, and all was quiet, except for a few flowers echoing his screams. bloom looked around. everything was the same, except chara's body was gone, and so was all the dust. _i must be in a different timeline,_ bloom thought, and looked around. "h-hello?" he yelled, "im hurt! c-can someone please help me?"

but no one came. 

and so here we are, in an empty timeline, bloom muttering to himself and pleas for help and screams being repeated by the echo flowers.

here we are, forgotten.


	2. one: a blue spark of hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> he would find nightmare, even if it was the last thing he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, another chapter! please tell me if you enjoyed it, and don't forget to check out my tumblr (inwhichiexist)!

bloom pounded on the door of the ruins, hoarse voice begging for asgore to come out. "please," he sobbed, "i've been here for so long, i want to go home!" behind him, a blue spark flashed. he whipped around, seeing three skeletons with their backs facing him, discussing something quietly among themselves. _you can't be real._ bloom repeated this in his head over and over, but despite that, he followed the three skeletons as they progressed towards waterfall. one had a blue scarf tied into a bow behind them, and blue boots. _this universe's sans?_ he thought. in the middle was a skeleton who was just barely taller than sans, with a long brown scarf, overalls that hung on his waist, and bare feet. the tallest, to bloom's left, had a yellow cape with a golden headdress, and blue boots like sans. something about them was familiar, their energy almost felt like - 

"nightmare." bloom said out loud, causing the three to stop and turn around. nightmare seemed worried, yellow-gloved hands up to his chest as he gasped. "you're what i felt. are you alright? you seem-" bloom backed away, arms ready to fight (despite it having been such a long time, his powers weren't as strong as they had been before the "incident") his way back to waterfall, to his little hideout behind the biggest namesake. "nightmare," he repeated, "how did you find me? this timeline has been disconnected from its universe." nightmare seemed startled, taking a step back. "i-i'm not nightmare, that's my brother...!" bloom took another good look at him: yellow eyes, blue shirt, pants, and boots, yellow belt with the letters DS, cape still against his back. resting on his head was a golden headdress, each end pointing opposite directions. "w...who are you, then?" bloom questioned cautiously. "not-nightmare" smiled warmly, and bloom felt a bit at ease as he answered, "my name is dream, and this is ink and blue. what's your name?" ink waved, smiling widely, and blue saluted to him. "b-bloom," he said quietly. dream smiled a little wider, holding his hand out. "it's nice to meet you, bloom. would you like to come with us-?" bloom interrupted dream, dashing forward and holding him tight, face buried in his neck. he missed this; missed people. "please," he begged quietly, tears threatening to spill. "i don't want to be alone anymore. it's been so many years." dream hugged back, whispering to him that it would be okay, i'll take you somewhere safe, we can heal you. bloom agreed immediately, and in another flash of blue light, they were somewhere warm, dream telling someone to get some food and set up a place to sleep.

bloom never let go, afraid everyone would disappear, and he'd be alone again, listening to the deafening silence of his empty timeline.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

when bloom woke up, he was under three or four blankets, dream still holding onto him. _how did i get here?_ he thought to himself. someone muttered behind him, and he saw blue and ink, curled up by him as well. they had stayed with him; he was forever grateful.

his eye felt better, and he carefully raised a hand to his face. it was still cracked, but not as bad as it had been before, and he could somewhat see out of his right eye again. someone must've healed bloom in the moments he couldn't recall. he must've fallen asleep after crying so hard. a movement behind him caused him to look over, and he saw blue rubbing his eyesockets. "hello," blue grumbled out, smiling at bloom. "you fell asleep in dream's arms, and when we tried putting you to bed, you cried in your sleep; ink suggested we all stay with you after we healed you." 

bloom turned around fully (dream whined before also turning the opposite direction), and smiled so widely his cheeks hurt him. "thank you, blue," he whispered. "all three of you, for getting me out of there. i felt like i was going crazy; it couldn't have been more than a few days, though." blue smiled back and sat up completely. "are you hungry?" bloom nodded, carefully leaving the pile of blankets (he apologized to ink, who scooted to where he was and held dream. cute) and looked around. all around him was colors; a yellow sky, purple grass, and all around him, floating in the air, were colorful pieces of paper, with names in the middle - underfell, underdecay, undertale, and so many more - and he realized he was in the multiverse. "the multiverse..." he wondered out loud, and blue looked over from where he was walking ahead. "you know about it?" "of course, i'm a guardian of the multiverse." 

blue fully turned to face bloom at that, eye lights showing concern. "...bloom, what year is it?" bloom opened his mouth to answer, then stopped. "i-its..." he whispered something to himself, then looked at blue. "it's 1018, isn't it? i was only stuck a few days, right?" of course, being alone, it felt longer than that sometimes. blue walked forward, glancing at ink and dream as they woke up from the commotion. "bloom," he started, holding his hands uncertainly. "the year is 2020." ink mumbled a "what?" as he blinked the sleep away, listening closely. 

"i think you were stuck in that timeline for over a thousand years, bloom. i'm so sorry."

bloom looked at the ground, at his bare feet, peeking out from his ripped robe. it made sense, he supposed; but he refused to believe it. maybe a month at most, but _a thousand years?_ that sounded impossible. he should be dead. "you're lying," he said after a long minute of silence (which he hated, he wanted someone to talk, or maybe hum something), and looked back up. dream and ink were now net to him, dream's hand on his shoulder. tears filled his eyes. "i-i-i should b-be dead if that was the truth. please, say this is some joke, my friends at home, they're..." the word went unsaid, but everyone knew. "this is _his_ fault." bloom looked around, sockets landing on one of the floating papers: _underfell_. without thinking, he shoved his shoulder away from dream and ran towards it, spreading his arms out. slowly, the paper turned into a flower with a hole in the middle, bloom jumping into it, ignoring the calls for him to come back.

all around him, numbers flew past, and he counted twenty timelines he could see before they sped faster and he appeared before echo flowers surrounded him, water flowing harshly behind him. "i need to find him," bloom muttered out loud. "find who, buddy?" bloom whipped around, seeing this universe's sans. he had a black jacket with faux fur on the hood, black shorts with yellow highlights, red and yellow shoes and white socks, and a flickering left eyelight, directed at bloom. "i need to find someone who hurt me, maybe you've seen him?" bloom walked towards the sentry station, and sans started looking nervous. "that's close, enough." bloom stopped about six feet from the station, and sans gave him a once-over. "i can help you, if you tell me how you got here," sans said, nodding towards the echo flowers, which echoed random conversations, as well as their current one. "i apologize," bloom said, and bowed lightly, arms in front of him. "my name is bloom, i guard the multiverse, i and hail from naturetale. i used my power to get here, by travelling through a flower. you must be sans, yes?" bloom already knew, but manners _were_ a thing, after all. sans nodded, seeming a little less tense. "yeah. hey, if you ever see blue, tell 'im i said hi." bloom nodded. "it's good to see some traditions are the same here, although the last time i was here, it seemed a little... brighter?" "lot's changed, buddy. how long ago were you here?" bloom looked away, distant now that he had been asked. "a very long time," he whispered.

sans nodded, and leaned forward, leaning on the station now. "now who is it you're looking for?" bloom touched the crack on his eye (sans had one too, he noticed) and realized he wasn't wearing his crown. "he calls himself nightmare," sans' light went out, and he stopped moving. "b-buddy, he's impossible to beat. the only person who's got a few good hits on him is his brother, dream." bloom glared. "i did not ask how strong he is," he said slowly. "i asked where he was." sans seemed more nervous now, leaning away from bloom. "no one knows. he's pretty good at hiding." bloom sighed and put his hand down. "thank you anyway. i'll tell blue you said hello." he walked into the flowers and numbers were around him again.

he would find nightmare, even if it was the last thing he did.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

bloom looked around the multiverse again, seeing no one there. _good,_ he thought. now he could keep looking. walking around, he spotted underswap and shuddered. he was never going to go back there again. maybe undertale knew something? bloom raised his arms up and again, the floating piece of paper slowly morphing until it became a large buttercup flower, portal to the echo flowers in the middle. he walked forward, smiled at the numbers and timelines before landing in the flowers, jewels shining on the cavern ceiling. it was quiet, and he ran towards snowdin, talking out loud. 

"you're fine, people are here, no one is dead, you're safe, you can see people."

despite these reassurances, bloom ran faster towards the snowy town. when he finally arrived, papyrus had turned around from where he was standing, as if waiting for someone.

"hello! i am the great papyrus!" bloom smiled; this tall skeleton wore red boots and a black body suit, white shirt, red mittens and red scarf. "what is your name, monster i have never seen before? are you from the capital?" maybe it would be okay to lie, right? papyrus seemed pretty harmless, and most likely wouldn't know about nightmare. bloom bowed deeply, catching the taller off guard with a "nyeh?" 

"it's a pleasure to meet you, great papyrus," he started, smiling to himself as papyrus seemed a little happier than he first had been. "where i come from is currently not important, for i have someone to visit. have you seen your brother?" putting a gloved hand to his head and thought, papyrus pointed to the other side of snowdin. "he should be at his post up there, trying to talk to the human." bloom smiled and got an idea. looking around and picking up a branch to his right, bloom walked closer to papyrus. "hold your hand out, please." confused, he did so, and bloom covered the small branch in both of their hands. after a second he pulled away, and papyrus gasped in wonder; the small branch had turned into a white gladiolus flower, in full bloom.

"this flower means strength, and the color, means purity. as long as you remain great, this flower will live." that wasn't true, of course; it would die when bloom did. but the smile on the taller skeleton's face was worth it, he was so happy, eyes sparkling. "wowie!" he cried, holding it up to his face. "this is a beautiful flower! i will make sure it will stay alive by continuing to be great!" bloom chuckled. he loved doing this for kids, mostly, but papyrus was... different. bloom wanted to think of him as a brother, but he barely knew him. he shook his head of those thoughts. he had a job to do. "i hope to see you again, great papyrus," bloom bowed again, and this time papyrus followed, giggling. "heya, buddy, what are you and my brother doing?" they both looked up, startled.

sans stood there, hands in his pockets and curiously looking at the flower. bloom could see behind his curiosity, though, was a protectiveness, like he was ready to fight bloom. "hello," bloom said, waving as papyrus waved his brother over. "my name is bloom. it's a pleasure to meet you, sans." sans looked at bloom weirdly. "oh, i apologize; if you'd come with me, i'll talk to you about it." papyrus said goodbye as the two skeletons walked away, observing his gift in awe. "alright, i don't think anyone can hear us," bloom said quietly as they walked back to the ruin doors. "so, are you aware of the multiverse, sans?" sans nodded. "i'm gonna guess you guard it?" bloom nodded, then stopped. "well, i'm not very sure anymore. the multiverse seems to have good protection these days. and they talk to each other!" sans gave bloom a look. "apologies. you see, i'm... over a thousand years old, apparently. a dark skeleton named nightmare injured me, and in my attempt to leave the timeline, it glitched out because i strained my magic on the codes too much. dream and his friends found me, and when they told me how long it had been, i started looking for nightmare-" "no." bloom blinked. "what?" sans gave a hard look to bloom. "you shouldn't look for him. he's really good at hiding, first, second, he's got an army. he's basically unstoppable. it would be best to just-" "just what?" bloom had started to grow angry. how dare this skeleton stop him from getting to nightmare? "it would be best to just... leave him be, and protect the aus like you've been doing." sans shrugged. "i'm sorry, bloom. really. but i think it's best if you don't fight him. at least not by yourself."

_how dare he stop me from killing nightmare he did this to me he stopped me from protecting everyone he hurt so many a CHILD died in my arms he drained me of my power i'm going to stop him i'm going to kill nightmare i'm going to kill yOU_

sans choked above bloom, snapping him out of his trance. sans was wrapped in violet thorns, squeezing every second. "oh stars." bloom put him down, and rushed over to the kneeling skeleton. "i'm so sorry, i've no idea what came over me-" sans grabbed his wrist, looking up. his left eye was blue and yellow. "i think you need to make like a tree and leaf, buddy." bloom stilled for a moment, feeling a powerful energy in sans, and nodded. "i'm so sorry. will you... at least tell papyrus i said goodbye?" sans grunted as he got up, which bloom took as a yes. "thank you," he said, "and i'm so sorry. i don't think i'll come back for a while." with that, bloom walked off towards waterfall, waving to papyrus as he passed him. bloom heard sans tell papyrus that he had just asked him about finding someone. the conversation faded as he walked to waterfall, smashing a box.

he would do whatever it takes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, and thanks for being patient! i hope you liked this chapter! have a wonderful day <3

**Author's Note:**

> follow my tumblr (inwhichiexist)!


End file.
